"But you never know how any little arrangement of that kind may be taken," Mary said, absently. "The intention may entirely be misunderstood. And then, brooding over some such thing in that lonely island may make it serious. I would not for worlds have him imagine that—that—he had not been well-treated. If you consider the peculiar circumstances—asked to a house that used to be his own—knowing he was to meet a nephew of my uncle—indeed I was not at all sure that he would come." "Neither was I!" said Käthchen, with a bit of a laugh. "It was very generous of him, in my opinion: he must have had to make up his mind." "Well, I will admit this," said Mary, with some colour mounting to her face, "that I put the invitation so that it would have been rather difficult for him to refuse—I—I asked him to come as a favour to myself. But that makes it all the worse if he has gone away with any consciousness of affront—and—and, as I say, brooding over it in that island would only deepen his sense of injury." She hesitated for a second or two, and then went on again, in a desperate kind of a way: "Why, for myself, the thinking over the mere possibility of such a thing has made me perfectly miserable. I don’t know what to do, Käthchen, and that is the truth. If Fred and his friend weren’t here I would go away out to Heimra—I mean you and I could go—so that I might see for myself why he has never sent me a line, or called. There must be something the matter. And as you say, it was a great concession to me—his coming to the house; and I can’t bear the idea of anything having happened to give him offence." "If you want to know," said the practical Käthchen, "why don’t you get Fred to write and ask him over for a day’s shooting?" Mary was walking up and down: she stopped. "Yes," she said, thoughtfully. "That might do—if Fred were a little reasonable. It would show Mr. Ross, at all events, that there was no wish to make a stranger of him." Her two guests came home late; they had got into a good shoal of stenlock, and had been loth to give up. When they made their appearance they found supper awaiting them; and not only that, but the young ladies had let their dinner go by, in order to give them of their company; so they ought to have been in an amiable mood. "Where did you go, Fred?" Mary asked, as they took their places at table. "Oh, a long way," said he. "We got Big Archie’s boat, and then we had her towed by the steam-launch: we made first of all for the headlands south of Minard Bay." "Then you would be in sight of Eilean Heimra most of the time?" she said, timidly. "Oh, yes." "You did not see any one coming or going from the island?" she continued, with eyes cast down. "No; but we were not paying much heed. I can tell you, those big stenlock gave us plenty of occupation." "It is rather odd we should have heard nothing of Mr. Ross," she ventured to say.